Pages

Thursday, November 18, 2010

La Tavola Brunch

La Tavola is our favorite neighborhood restaurant, and my love for it is well documented. The food is always reasonably priced and scrumptious ,and the service is always friendly and attentive. What more can I ask for?

Little did I know I can access all that wonderfulness for brunch, too. Mr. AT and I rarely go to brunch. I'm luke warm on egg dishes at best, and I love to hang out in my jammies on Sundays reading the paper and watching Sunday Morning. But we were tempted out of our warm little cocoon with the offer of a free brunch at La Tavola, so we opted to schedule it for our anniversary this past weekend. The celebration should extend from morning to night, right?

The restaurant was busy but not like Murphy's line-apalooza next door. If there's one thing I hate worse than boring omelets, it's lines standing between me and food, so the pleasantly bustling but not packed crowd was just right. They take reservations, too, so you're forever safe from off-putting waits if you can plan in advance.

Mr. AT is always hating on beets despite my love for them, so I snapped up a chance to order a beet salad when I didn't have to worry about what he wanted. The sweet juicy beets were paired with crisp apples, bitter fennel and crunchy pistachios - a symphony of flavors and textures. Even Mr. AT begrudgingly admitted this was one darn tasty salad.

Mr. Fifth Group himself, Michael Erickson, had recommended the Pork Milanese, so how could I say no? The pork scallopine was served with an arugala tomato salad and a poached egg. The egg had a wonderfully liquidy center that burst forth over my crisp and slightly salty meat, adding a richness, while the salad provided an acidic counterpoint.

Mr. AT can't resist a good piece of beef, and he virtually never gets it for breakfast, so he chose the flatiron with polenta, broccoli rabe, and a poached egg. The meat was well seasoned and full of flavor, but for me polenta is always kind of blah. Don't get me wrong, there's is quite good, but I ultimately thought I chose the winning dish.

It's a nice change of pace to have legitimate dishes to choose from for lunch. If I weren't being tortured by the need to cut back on carbs, tagliatelle or manicotti, two dishes I love on their dinner menu, might have rocked my breakfast world!

As always La Tavola served up a wonderful meal in a pleasant, classy but still neighborhoody atmosphere, and our waiter and the manager were not only cute as can be but also incredibly helpful and warm to boot. My kind of place!